In 2014, Norway created the world’s first all-female special operations unit — out of necessity.

Beginning in 2001, Norway’s top special operations unit, the Forsvarets Spesialkommando, or FSK, played a tip-of-the-spear role in Operation Enduring Freedom, often working alongside Delta Force and Navy SEAL operatives. However, the FSK, like many all-male Western military units operating in predominantly Muslim countries, found itself disadvantaged when it came to one pretty major aspect of counterinsurgency: dealing with the local female population.

“In Afghanistan, one of our biggest challenges was that we would enter houses and not be able to speak to the women,” Capt Ole Vidar Krogsaeter, an officer with the Norwegian Special Operations Forces, said in an interview with Foreign Affairs. “In urban warfare, you have to be able to interact with women as well. Adding female soldiers was an operational need.”

About Me

I have been involved in numerous computer science projects since the 1980s, as well as developing numerous web projects since 1996.
These blogs are a summation of all the information that I read and catalog pertaining to the subjects that interest me.